Turkey gets first internet peering point

A group of seven Turkish internet service providers have
joined forces to promote Istanbul as a major internet peering hub for the wider region.

Borusan Telekom, Dogan Telekom, Global Iletisim, Grid Telekom, Koc.net, SuperOnline and TurkNet have jointly launched a peering platform, called TNAP, as they push to capitalise on Turkey’s strategic geographic location between Europe and the Middle East.

Turkey has never had an internet exchange point of its own, forcing ISPs until now to route tra c via either Frankfurt or London. The owners of TNAP hope that the new platform will not only provide a much needed rallying point for Turkish internet traffic, but will also do a similar job for the various countries that surround Turkey.

To support the TNAP platform, the seven parties claim between them to have invested $6.35 million on new fibre infrastructure. TNAP says beneficiariesof this investment will include Turkish mobile operators such as Vodafone, Avea and Turkcell, in addition to ISPs.

“TNAP will provide users with a faster, higher-quality and cost-effective internet option,” said Murat Erkan, general manager of fibre network operator SuperOnline, a subsidiary of mobile player Turkcell.

“Through this venture,” Erkan said, “we have signed on to a project to bring enhanced connectivity to Turkey. TNAP will provide an important advantage at a time when data centre costs have increased significantly. At SuperOnline, we are making a considerable contribution to establishing Istanbul as an internet hub.”

Research firm TeleGeography estimated Turkey had 6.85 million broadband subscribers at the end of September 2010.